


Hollow

by KingOfThorns94



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood and Gore, Bullying, Child Death, Corruption, Mild Gore, Monsters, Neglect, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 15:30:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21657145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingOfThorns94/pseuds/KingOfThorns94
Summary: Toby was a teen with lots of social and family issues, but being pushed to the breaking point can change people their mind, their soul, their heart, or maybe what we call a monster...-first attempt at a story, and yes I know there's a lot of grammar mistakes, if you like it and wanna see it improved please leave a comment of maybe a suggestion or a mistake I made, thx!-
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1: The Day All Good Came To An End

“Dammit” I continue to cough after swallowing some of my coffee, hoping it would help the cold feeling in my chest. “Are you okay?” I turn around to see my older sister Violet,   
“Y-Yeah I’m good, I think it may have just gone down the wrong way is all” I reply back, hearing that she nods and walks off without another word, figures.  
“Will you guys hurry up! You’re going to be late!” I flinch slightly at the yelling as I sigh, putting down the mug and grabs my bag ready to head to school.   
As we all get into the car, my sister the eldest, in front as me, my older brother Ryan, and younger sister Rachel, squeeze into the back seat. As my mind begins to wonder thinking of the recent attacks and panic among parents for their kids since all the attacks were on schools grounds, what the hell is- “Toby” I turn to see it was my sister who called my name “yes?” I reply back as I turn to she staring at me “have you found any friends yet? Is what I asked” she repeats, I sigh softly “no, no I haven’t” I answer back about to go back to daydreaming when she scowls at me and says “are you serious? Come on Toby you can’t keep going through school with nobody to talk to” I sigh again a little annoyed “I’d rather we didn’t have this conversation now please” I reply back as she seems to get annoyed by that “well I bet you’d have friends, if you didn’t care about that stupid little game of yours so much” she says pointing at me, “I really doubt if I had the games or not that I’d have friends” I say back as she just sighs and slumps back into her seat, as I hear her muttering something to herself “if … normal” is all I hear, as the rest of the drive is silent. The cold feeling in my chest still there.

Having been dropped off at school with still a good 30 minutes till the bell rings, I swear sometimes our mom overreacts.   
I head towards the commons where I always hang out, as I feel something soft hit the back of my head. “Freak!” I hear someone yell, I sigh and just keep going. Next thing I know something really hard hits my head making me stumble forward as I see a baseball land on the floor, and someone saying “nice shot man”, I growl and just continue going to the corner of the room and sits down rubbing the sore spot on my head.   
“Hey Toby!” I look up to see Violet with a blonde haired girl behind walking towards me, sighing under my breathe I say “yeah? What’s up?” I ask as she smiles brightly “heya Toby, I wanted you to meet someone, Kate this is my brother Toby, toby this is Kate” “hi” I say to the girl “heya” she says back cheerfully, too cheerfully. “So violet, there something you need?” I ask turning away from Kate. “I just thought it be good if you met someone who you could relate to “ she says before going behind Kate and softly nudges her forward, I look at my sister confused as to why she is doing this “umm vio-“ “Great now have fun you two!” She says, but before she can leave I say “violet I’m thankful that you are trying to “help” but please stop” I say to her almost instantly regretting it as she turns around and looks furious, “Why!? Why do you always make everything so difficult! I’m trying to help you get out there and get a friend so you aren’t constantly getting picked on at school, and this what you do!” She screams at me “even had to go and pay som-“ she stops mid sentence and covers her mouth, and went pale, as Kate softly chuckles “well at least that was pretty short, easiest 100 bucks of my life, later freak” I hear her say and walks away, as Violet chases after her, I don’t hear what they are saying as the cold feeling it feels like it’s spreading? It’s getting worse…  
I pulled from my thoughts as Violet smacks me and pulls me into her face by my hoodie, “you selfish asshole! Why did you do that!?” She screams into my face “because I never asked you to do that, I didn’t ask you to go and buy someone, I’m fine Violet just leave it alone” I say back before, as I feel the smack me across the face again and backs off a little “why can’t you just be normal!?” She screams as those words echo across the room. I see her throw her hands over her mouth looking guilty and instantly regretting what she said before she seems to try to apologize, I can see her talking but I can’t hear her as the feeling, it’s everywhere now, it’s cold but it’s not uncomfortable. I feel empty… splat...drip..drip  
Before I knew it, I had thrown up into my hand, but when I looked down at it what I saw it wasn’t broken down food, it.. it was black…, some kind of black fluid, it tasted kinda like iron but it didn’t look like blood, no it was straight pitch black. I couldn’t move I was paralyzed looking down at the stuff   
I fall to my knees as I begin to cough uncontrollably, coughing up more of the black liquid, before I end up throwing up into my hand again, but this time something fell into my hand looking down at it shakily I see what looks like a grey cracked crystal in the shape of a perfect sphere. The last thing I saw was that crystal, as I fell over everything fading to  
Black…..


	2. Chapter 2: The Moment Time Stood Still

I slap my hands over my mouth, how? How could I just have said that! I look Toby in the eyes “Toby I am so-“ splat ...drip..drip..  
I stopped mid sentence as I watched my brother’s hand shot up to his mouth as a large amount of what looked like, black liquid?, shot out of his mouth and shot out of the opening of his hand. Toby looking wide eyed looked down at his hand, as I hear someone from behind me shout “hey look the freak finally took some advice and took some bleach!” “Do us a favor and take some more!” Someone else joins in, as I was about to shout over my shoulder at them, I was stopped as Toby dropped to his knees in a fit of coughing and hacking out more of the stuff, at first I thought he was just throwing up the coffee but now, I see it’s not that no matter how thin it gets it’s just black…  
He freezes up as he pulls his hand from his mouth, his lips covered in the stuff as it drips from his mouth to his chin to the floor already having made a good sized black puddle around Toby, in his hands was this little grey crystal? It was covered in cracks so many and some went deep, it looked like if you just dropped it, it would shatter, “Tob-“ before I could say his name he collapsed..  
“Did he just faint?” “What the hell is the freak doing now?” “What was he coughing up?” I heard all of them asking in the background some inching closer to get a better look, but I didn’t care about that what I was concerned with was that the small grew crystal that fell out Toby’s hand when he collapsed began to move…  
I stood there paralyzed as I watched it slowly moving more and more before it combusted…  
It just went up in flames, but the flame didn’t look normal it was blackish grey and the regular blue part was white looking, it slowly floated into the air before shooting straight into Toby’s chest disappearing, but gave enough force to knock him into a position where he’s sitting up but sitting on his knees. His eyes were pitch black where they were originally brown, even the white part was black..  
I stood shocked, what is happening to him?  
But as I was about to approach him the puddle of the black liquid began to climb up him covering his body and clothes as he remained unmoving.  
“Toby!” I cried as I reached out to him but was grabbed from behind “Frank! Get over here and get everyone out of the building now!” I heard him shout as he passed me to the other man as I continue to struggle to get out his grip “stop! Please he’s my brother! Please “ I was thrashing and fighting but he wouldn’t let go as he lead me to the front with the other kids as we were evacuated from the building, as I heard the man who first grabbed me speak into a phone “forgive sir but we have a code: black, I repeat a code: black. Possible level 2 or 1…” was the last thing I heard as I forced outside to join the others, Toby please be okay…


	3. Chapter 3: Nightmares Rebirth

It’s been about 20 minutes now since we’ve been evacuated from the building, “please tell us, is this some sort of attack? Why did we have to evacuate the school!? Why aren’t you telling us anything!” is what I can hear from the front of the school from the teachers questioning the men, I’ve been nothing but scared and worried, I sniff wiping some of my tears, as I look up as another helicopter comes in and drops off more men, in full body armor armed to the teeth as they flood into the building and some staying outside to watch us. I find my two other siblings and hugs tightly scared and saddened at what I had said to Toby as I hear over the intercom, “Violet Nicole Ashson, please come to the front of the building, I repeat Violet Nicole Ashson come to the front of the building” hearing this I go wide eyed as to what they want me for. I hug the two before turning around and making me way through the sea of students and towards the front of the building, as soon as I’m at the entrance a large soldier comes out “are you Mrs. Ashson? Toby Ashson’s brother?” “Um yes?” I say slightly intimidating by his size as he speaks again “please come with me Mrs” he says leading me back into the school and holding the door for me. As we enter the school I turn to the left towards the commons where Toby was and see all the soldiers have their weapons fixed on the black like statue in the very corner of the commons “Toby….” I say slightly tearing at the sight as at first look I would have thought it was a statue made of black stone, but it’s my brother…  
“Mrs? Are you the sibling to Toby Ashson?” “Y-Yes” I say sniffing and whipping away the tear “good come with us you may be able to help us in saving him” hearing that I chase after the man “what do you mean save!? Save him from what!?” The man sighs and looks at me “I don’t have the time to tell I’m sorry,” he says before turning back to a monitor which is being used to have a vid call with some official looking man “how bad is it Charles?” “Pretty bad, energy around the thing is already beginning to spike, estimated reemergence time 12 minutes” “I see, you know what to do Charles, you save him, or you put “it” down” “understood sir” Charles says back and ends the call “put down!? You are not hurting my brother!” “It wouldn’t be your brother we’re hurting “ he says back looking slightly pained as he pulls a pair of pistols, but they don’t look right they’re black and gold but it looks the material is moving? “Come along, now “ he says as I follow back the commons and the soldiers makeshift barricades of the tables “estimated time?” “10 minutes!” He then turn to me and kneels down “okay listen to me, I need you to as soon as that thing opens” he points to the statue “to talk to what comes out, it’s not gonna look human so prep-“ “it’s cracking!” He stops mid sentence as we both look at the statue to see it slightly shifting and yes indeed cracking almost making a noise like glass…  
“That was faster than anticipated, everyone get ready!” He says as he readies his gun,   
The thing after a few deafening seconds of it cracking loudly finally breaks and shatters into pieces, the shards hitting the floor leaving behind my brother just sitting there in the same position all the black stuff gone, as I hear from my side “this shouldn’t be right? Could it be a level 10?” He asks looking at one of the monitors, not caring anymore “Toby!” I cry and dash to him “wait stop!” The man yells at me, Toby still kneeling there as I crash into him hugging him tightly, “Toby, I am so sorry, please forgive I should have never said those awful things” I say as feel him slowly hug me back “I’m so sorry, please forgiv-“ Crunch.. drip.. drip  
I stopped mid sentence I heard an odd noise as I look to my left at my brother as he had his face buried in my shoulder, but what caught my eye was the crimson liquid flowing down my shirt staining it, I let out an ear piercing scream as what just happened catches up to me, as I try to get away and punches Toby, only for him to dig his teeth in deeper. bang.  
I hear a gunshot from behind me as Toby’s head flys back, finally letting go but taking a few small pieces of my shoulder with it making me scream again as his body hits the floor limp, I look at my shoulder to jagged teeth marks and torn flesh, but there was way to many teeth marks then there should have been, crying and holding my shoulder I see in the corner of my eye movement to turn to see Toby getting back up, after being shot in the head! But the way he gets up, it, It isn’t right!, he stand up like a corpse should have, that’s when I feel nothing but fear at what I see next, it’s Toby but it’s all wrong, his eyes the white part are black and his irises they’re different colors, where his left is a deep blue, the other is whitish grey, to add to that the pupils are slits, his eyes bare into me like they’re looking inside me filled with hungry. But that was all until I saw his mouth, my god it looked like it was splitting his head into two but what scared me most, was the fact that it’s “lips” were jagged cracks like you broke clay over his real ones, like they were fake. Behind those you couldn’t see any pink or red no it was just black as I was able to see the black jagged teeth that looked they belonged to a shark, but sharper…  
He took a step towards me “open fire!” I hear Charles yes as all the soldiers start shooting at him at once, creating a cloud of dust.  
“Hold your fire!” He orders out, as they all stop shooting and before long the dust clears to reveal nothing, confused I look around to see still nothing…   
“It’s on the ceiling!” I hear someone yell as someone or something drops in front of me. All the horrors in the world couldn’t have prepared me for what I saw, the thing standing in front of me looking nothing like my brother, but it had pieces of what looked like his skin and clothes sticking to it like years old dry paint, as it stood I saw it’s features better as stood to be about 6”5’ or 4’ it wore what looked like a hoodie with three rib like attachments on each side, the base of the hood had what looked like fur but with spikes between each hair, the arms were pitch black with two white bands on the left arm and one of the right, while it changed to a whitish blue of the hoodie, it looked like it was wearing a pitch black shorts with vines of thorns sticking out of the ends poking into his legs. It face looked nothing like a person, it looked as if a mask was grafted onto a person and became their face, it had no mouth and the nose was almost flat the nostrils were small unmoving slits, he opened its mouth, the mask cracking again to reveal it the jagged row of razor sharp teeth. I freeze completely when I see its tongue as it slithers out of its mouth and licks my blood off its mask face, it must have been at least a foot long!  
I lay still bleeding paralyzed as was everyone else.   
“That can’t be possible, unless- “  
He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as the thing lets out a loud roar like screech, it sounded like what a banshee would make, “Toby?”


	4. Chapter 4: The Tears That Blackened The Sky

It’s so bright here…. could this hurry up I thought looking at Toby messing with the camera, “come Toby, what’s taking so long?” I groan as he shoots me a “really” look “well.., do you want this picture to be good? or would you rather we be here all trying to get the perfect one?” He replies back. Smartass I scowl at him, “and done, there was that so bad?” He asks starting the timer and runs over jumping behind me and Mom with a proud looking grin. We still had to retake the picture though, but I remember that was the last time I saw him smile like that….  
.  
.  
I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment, like I’ll never forget the thing standing in front of me.

Snapped back into reality I cover my ears as best as I can with the volume the things roars at, as I see the wall of windows leading to the outside begin to crack before shattering due to the volume of its roar. Becoming light headed as my ears ring, the thing finally stops and closes its mouth the cracks sealing themselves into the “mask”. I watch it as it seems to be grouping up the men as they try to recollect themselves not having been prepared for the “roar” or screech either, that’s when I hear my phone going off in pocket, pulling it out I see the screen is going crazy, with a mixture of static covering the screen to it jumping back and forth of apps, as the ringtone is going of constantly. Looking up I see much the same thing happening to the lights, looking around I see everything electrical was going crazy, that’s when I heard all the panic outside. Thinking it was just the gunshots I see why there was panic, in seconds the skies go from clear weather to dark becoming completely overcast of clouds looking like it’s about to rain hard.   
As the things movements draws my attention again moving forward as I feel something behind me dragging me backwards towards the men, drawing the attention of the creature, it’s glowing irises looking me dead in the eyes before they disappear leaving the deep empty pits it’s eyes looked like without them. It’s attention is drawn away as some of the men begin to fire at it again, the bullets hit the like there are bouncing off its skin as they hit falling to the ground dented inwards and blackened? That’s when I see the ground its standing on looks “old”, like it’s beginning to wither after hundreds of years. As it looks to men before screaming at them and charging them instantly back handing one them in the chest sending him flying into the wall cracking it as the soldier falls to the ground limp, as one of the others try to slash at it with a machete looking blade but it looked like it was made out of the same material the pistols from before were, not mattering, the thing moves out of the way and bites down hard onto the soldiers arm snapping bones as it lifts him like a rag doll and rips off his arm, and throws it aside and plunges its clawed hand into the man's chest and rips something out, I couldn’t tell what it was but it was glowing… green…?  
The thing held up to its face before stuffing it into its mouth like it would die if it didn’t. Looking as if it just swallowed the most delicious meal in the world it growls before turning back to the men attacking them one by one, doing the same to four more men.  
That’s when the most haunting thing happened, having cleared out a large amount of men and having injured the rest, I hear a sniffled cry “daddy?..” I hear around the corner from the hall, hearing the same the creature freezes as Liz a young little girl, the science teachers daughter probably no older than 10 comes into view “daddy?” Looking around till her eyes stop on…. her dad!?  
I watch shocked and confused how he got there, in. The. Exact. Spot the creature was just standing…. “Dad?” “Yes Lizzie it’s me, why don’t you come here?” Charles holding his side having it been clawed yells “don’t do it! It’s a trick!” He yells panting at the effort, Liz looks to the man before looking back at her “dad” “it’s okay Lizzie, I’m here, daddies here” he says crouch down to her level, she softly sniffles before running over in to his arms “don’t!” Charles yells before coughing and hacking up some blood, Liz hugs her dad as he hugs her back and stands up, and starts to squeeze tightly “d-daddy? That hurts! Please! Stop!!” She screams as the face of her father goes emotionless and she begins to cry in pain, before snap…. And her body goes limp in his arms and the skin of her father starts to change like scales and bones snap reforming the creature holding the little girls body before plunging it’s hand into her chest and pulls out a little flame surrounding a crystal like ball like before with Toby but this one was different the flame was blueish white, with a slight gold at the ends. The creature looked at like it was the most valuable thing in the world, and throws the girls body like it was trash against a wall snapping another bone in her lifeless body, and takes the small thing in its hands and eats it slowly like it was trying to savor every moment of it, and swallows making a growl like purring sound before it changes shapes again turning into a raven but it looked as big, if not bigger as an eagle and flies out the broken frames of the windows into the outside world. That was the last thing I saw, as the darkness began to take me..and I felt sleepy….  
.  
.  
.


	5. Chapter 5: The Thorns Grow Ever Deeper

I feel like I'm floating? “How bad is it?” I hear voices? “Pretty bad, she was bitten over an hour ago, it’s already spread to most of her arm I’m afraid” what’s going on? “And the soldier in charge at the sight?” “Alive doctor, but he’s suffered some minor injuries, but no bites” no bites? What’s going on? Why’s my arm feel like it’s burning? “Dammit! We need to hurry it’s getting worse!” That’s the last thing I hear as it feels like I’m swimming, but I can’t move like I’m paralyzed…  
I feel myself being to move, I open my eyes and see nothing but a dark pale room as I go to sit up I look down at my hands seeing the ones of the creature, see this I scream in panic, before….  
I shoot up in bed panting heavily as I then winces feeling unbearable pain in my left shoulder looking at I see the entire thing is covered in bandages and is in a cast, as something else catches my eye seeing what looks like a tube attached to my vein and leading up to a drip bag, but what caught my attention was the fact it was filled with some kind of golden liquid, more yellow than anything and is being injected into my arm..  
I’m torn from my thoughts as a black woman with her hair in dreads in a bun, enters the room holding a clipboard not looking at me as she goes over to the drip bag to check on it, before finally realizing I was awake “oh! Hi there, sorry I didn’t notice you were awake“ she says putting the clipboard down and taking a seat next to me “how is your arm feeling?” She asks me “i-it bu-burns” I reply back my throat feeling dry and horse, noticing she instantly grabs the cup next to her on the nightstand and hands it to me, a small purple umbrella and sippy straw inside. “Thank you” I say handing the cup back and she places it back on the nightstand, “where am I?” I ask, she sighs and looks slightly saddened “I’m sorry hun but I can’t tell you something like that “ I look at her shocked and confused   
“What? Why!?” I say almost yelling as I begin to panic, “please calm, yes I’d love to tell you but I can’t, it’s all because of things that go on here” she says softly rubbing my shoulder. Before pulling away as an armed soldier comes into the room with a wheelchair, “Mrs. Ashson, if you would be so kind as to come with us” I sit there slightly afraid before nodding and softly shuffling into the wheelchair, not realizing it till now how weak I felt. I look around the place to see what looks like a large base with all kinds of labs and offices, that go a far ways down. We enter an elevator and the guard swipes his card along a black screen above the floors, and a automated voice comes out of nowhere “level 1 clearance, authorized, welcome Benjamin Adam” it says as the doors shut and we start going down deeper into the base. As the elevator door gives a soft beep and opens I hear “welcome to level 1” creepy… as the soldiers starts wheeling me down the hall to a large pair of dark oak doors shouting can be heard clearly from behind the door, opening it I see it’s a conference room with a large group of people arguing “ahem!” Someone in the back says loudly silencing the rest now being able to see it was a very beat Charles, as the soldier salutes and leaves closing the door behind him welcome Mrs Ashson, do you remember me?” He asks as I give him a quick nod, “good, good. Now back to the matter at hand” he says turning on the projector showing a recorded video of my brother when he came out as that thing and roared before the video began to go fuzzy and freak out “that ladies and gentlemen, is what we are facing here” He says with a clear demanding voice.  
All of them having the same grim look on their faces “if what you're saying is true!, a level 0! A breed that we all, including you! Said was a myth!?” One of the men yells slamming his first into the table.  
“Charles please understand that this is all pretty out of the blue, How do we actually know if this is an actual level 0 as you claim?” An Asian wearing fine clothes says looking worried.   
“I’m telling you all what I saw, nothing about this was normal!, the corruption or the reemergence. It all was wrong nothing like a level 1 or 2” Charles says annoyed wearing a sling for his arm and some bandages, but other than that he was wearing a button up shirt and black pants, “the very nature of his hollow was wrong.” He explains making everyone in the room raise an eyebrow “what do you mean?” The asian women, Charles sighs and replays the video, “over the last few hours we’ve been watching this recording in hopes it could help us find a way to fight against this thing. But what we found made us question what we thought hollows may or may not be capable of” he says playing the video again and the events were going through, same as before but at some point I noticed something when the thing was attacking a group, another group of men were being attacked by some invisible force…  
Looking around I see a few of the others take notice as well. When video cuts out again the man who had yelled earlier, was the first one to say something about it “is the video having issues or was something else happening here Charles?” He asks as I look to Charles to see him giving a slightly worried look “your not seeing things, nor is it a glitch I’m afraid” he says as he pressed something on his computer and the filter on the video changes, but that wasn’t the only thing that did…  
Watching the video when the filter changed the creature seemed to multiply?, where there was one creature, there was now 5…. “Charles please tell me I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing” the Asian woman asked looking more worried than anything, “I’m afraid you are” he says everyone else was sharing the same fearful look. As the man from earlier was about to speak again the man who brought me in earlier came back into the room interrupting again “this better be good Benjamin!” The man growls, “I’m sorry sir, but director who have a slight issue with one of the visitors, and I think you may wanna hear this” saying that Charles looks curious and stands up and dismisses the meeting. “Adam, please bring violet with us please” the soldier nods and get behind the wheelchair and catches up with Charles.   
Sighing heavily Charles speaks up “sorry you had to be part of that” he says looking exhausted “I’m sorry but what is this place?” “It’s our facility and base of operations, our group has existed for years now, we still have records from the first settlers here in America” he says as I stare at him wide eyed, as I go to say something Charles speaks up “so what was so important to interrupt the meeting Adam” he asks sounding a little annoyed “I thought it might be considered the most recent events” the soldier replies back “but to put it simply Mrs. Wordwell is causing a ruckus in the visitors lounge“ the soldier adds making Charles look even more annoyed “and this was important why?” He practically growled “it’s why that’s important sir because, she keeps claiming that her “daughter” talked sir” Adam replies. Charles goes pale and looks at him “are you serious?” Charles asks and Adam nods, hearing Charles starts speed walking now with a face of worry on.  
-entering the lounge-  
As soon as we enter the visitors area I could hear an argument going on “please Mrs Wordwell, we need you to calm down “ I hear what I can only assume is a soldier or some other member of staff. “I’ll “calm” down when you let me go see my daughter!” “Mrs she is dangerous and what you claim is not possible”, “I told you already I know what I heard! Call me crazy if you like but she spoke!” The woman screams back as we turn the corner “Mrs Wordwell!” I flinch hearing Charles raise his voice as the soldier and women turn to look at us “if you are dead set on such a claim, would you be so kind as to tell what it was she said exactly?” She stops and looks down to the ground “no, no I can’t. I couldn’t tell what she said exactly” Mrs. Wordwell replies with making both Charles and the soldier groan in annoyance, “but I can show you! Just go to her room you’ll see!” She says and starts marching down the hall behind her surprisingly quickly for a woman her age. Groaning Charles chases after her the soldier following behind as well pushing my wheelchair along.   
-  
“But mom!, I saw it!” The little boy cried out to his mother, “please honey, you probably just dreamt it” she says and softly huffles his hair and hugs him before tucking him back in and closes the door, leaving him in the room by himself. “You just dreamt it, it was just a dream” the boy clings tightly to his teddy bear and pears out the window, to see a pair of two glowing eyes staring back at him in the tree…


	6. Chapter 6: The Dying Light

“Where? Where am I?” looking around I can’t see anything, it’s so dark nothing but darkness. It’s hard to move like I’m in water but thicker? I keep seeing things, small glimpses of people in armor and weapons yelling, and a younger looking girl holding a bloody shoulder. She looks scared and shocked, all I hear her say is one word but I couldn’t understand it “T̸̝̔ŏ̵̳b̸͚͆y̴̫̒.” It almost sounded like a machine made the noise, then the image fades and a little while later I see a light? It’s a nice warm golden light I try to reach out for it but then the light wasn’t there and in its place was a little girl, she looked familiar but I couldn’t place who she was, but she soon disappeared as well. That’s when it happened I saw so many images around me and I remembered something a name lizzy and a past that felt like I was living it. It made me feel warm and safe, but then it changed to a dark and cold feeling as all the images change to some sort of monster with glowing eyes and everything fades back to black. Cold, everything here feels so cold and numbing, then I realized. Who...am…I?

-

“Just listen! She spoke I tell you!” Mrs. Wordwell was practically shouting as she had brought us to a room with a large window for one of the walls and what looks like a girl with long white hair and a black old looking Victorian dress. She was facing the corner and her hands were folded in front of her out of view along with her face thanks to her hair. We all stand there watching the girl behind the glass but nothing happened she made no move lifeless like a statue. I turn as I hear a loud groan of annoyance from Charles and rakes his fingers through his hair before turning to the woman and begins to lecture her, not really caring I push my myself over to the glass to get a better look of the inside of the room. The walls were white with the light being a large square in the ceiling, as the arguing gets louder I groan and turn around to three of them acting like children fighting over a broken toy. Sighing and rubbing his temple Charles looks my way before his expression changed to that of shock as some of the color in his face fades, confused I turn around and comes face to face with the girl that was in the corner. Her hands and face up against the glass letting me get a good look now, as I see that her nails must have been at least a foot long sharp looking things that more resembled a thin knife or dagger. Her mouth was a large smile with sharp needle like teeth filling it, and her eyes were black with two grey glowing pupils that seemed to stare into my very soul. “Ooffferrinngg~” is all it said my heart dropped at the sound of its voice as it’s eyes never left me. Charles walked around me and hit a button on the wall making a metal like shutter drop closing off the view of the square room, as he then asks us to leave the room still in a state of shock. Having left the room I’m pulled to the side by the soldier as Charles comes out of the room and has a short talk with the woman and turns back to us and leads us to what I can assume is his office. “Thank you, you can leave now” the soldier nods and leaves the room closes the door behind him as Charles sighs and seems to try to recompose himself, after a minute or so he sits back crossing his arms, “I’m assuming you have a lot of questions, ask away” looking down I think about what to ask first. “What was that? and is that what my brother is now?” Looking down a little saddened he inhales, “for your first question. That was a Hollow, creatures I guess you could say are both born and created. They are beings created/born from the hate, despair, and pain in our hearts and consumed by it. That girl in that room was Victoria Wordwell, a hollow of a level 2 category sadly she can not be saved, she was only 15 when she became what she is now.” He says pulling out a file showing a picture of what she looked like before. Looking over he continues “I’m guessing you’re thinking that woman was her grandmother but truth be told that was her mother, that girl will be turning 46 this year.” Hearing that I stop and look up seeing he’s not joking, as I think more about it the feeling of dread begins to set in, “what.. what about Toby?” His expression turns grim before answering “Toby has become something more than just a hollow, he became something we believed was only a myth. The founders of our organization called them level 0’s. A hollow more powerful than any other, an alpha among them. They left nothing on record about them other than names, but the one thing they did leave, is a warning and an order that should a level 0 be born they can not be saved, and to put them down as fast as possible…”


	7. Chapter 7: Bitter Silence

“N-no you can’t!” I yell out on impulse at the thought of it. Putting my own brother down like he was an animal something less than human!  
“I’m sorry, but given what we’ve seen and what’s already happening because of Toby’s hollow. We have no choice..” I shake in the chair with rage “what!? What has it done in the short amount of time huh!?” I scream seeing that it couldn’t possibly have done much within a day.   
“How long do you think you were unconscious for?” Is all he responds with, “it’s only been a day I don’t see how-“ “Violet it’s been a month since the incident”. I felt my heart drop “h-how? It only felt like...” Trying to keep it together as it only seemed like hours “you could thank him for that, the bite he gave you left you in a very weak state, and the fact the venom didn’t kill you surprises us all” looking up in shock I see the grimm look hasn’t left his face, he isn’t lying about this “why would the bite?...” he takes a deep inhale and sits up a little “a hollow gives off pure corruption enough that it taints the air and rots the very earth around them, any and all electric devices go haywire. Their bite is even worse, hollows saliva is practically acid to our cells destroys them on contact, we had something to fight it off till it eventually dissipated” he points to the little bag that’s connected to my arm. “But it seems like everything, a level 0’s is not only stronger but even more toxic as it was practically eroding and burning your arm and shoulder away. By the time we got you here we were only barely able to stop it, it still seems to be in your blood only being barely kept in check by the mixture if injected in large doses” he sighs and rubs his temples as I sit there on the breaking point as I start feeling my shoulder through the bandages. “It seems as well that a level 0’s presence is a calling the number of people turning doubled after it was born, if only that was our only problem. Given what we saw with Mrs. Wordwell’s daughter today we can assume the alarming amount of people going missing has to do with other feral hollows taking people, if not Toby” covering his face with his hands before he continues “which is why we need your help with something” thinking the worse I was about to object but continues cutting me off “before you worry I’m not gonna ask you to fight or help us hunt him, I just need to ask some questions” hearing that I sit back down a bit easier “this could help us so please answer these as best and as clear as possible” he pulls out a file and pen. Giving a nod he continues “please label out any and all strengths and weaknesses you know Toby had when he was human” hitting a wall I think back to every memory I could think, drawing a blank “I’m sorry I got nothing…” clicking his tongue he puts away the file and pen “it’s fine but if you can think of anything please let us know…”  
-

“Mom mommy!” I cried cling to my teddy, the bear now missing an eye and leg, wearing the same torn dirty pajamas sitting in the corner of the thorned prison next to all the other people inside it all different ages and genders, all of them begging to be released to afraid to try to leave again after the man who tried was dragged off all we could hear was his ear piercing screams before nothing but silence. “They’re coming!” A woman in a torn suit screams making everyone huddle away from the makeshift door as far as possible as every time it opened someone was taken. The door opens and the boogeyman from before comes inside looking around before his eyes locked on to me and he charges forward grabbing me by the arm “noooo!! Nooo!” I try to pull away from his cold grip only to have no effect not even causing him to slow down as he pulls me from the cage into the dark cold woods.  
walking for a little while I couldn’t feel my feat anymore as I cling as tight as I can to teddy shivering as we come to a large clearing someone standing in the center with lots of glowing eyes in the trees. Approaching the person the boogeyman slows down a few feet away from him “Ooffferrinngg~” he said in a weird voice the person comes closer as the boogeyman holds me up to him and kneels, the man wearing a hoodie stops in front of me getting sleepy I start falling asleep seeing two different colored glowing eyes and… lots…of teeth….   
and everything faded to black...


	8. Chapter 8: Painful Truth

After my talk with Charles ends I was taken back to the room I woke up in, I was given a new bag of the gold stuff it felt nice at least, kind of a warm feeling that spreads throughout your whole body. Sitting there on the bed I think back to myself of every memory I had of Toby till now, how many times I ignored him and blew him off to do my own thing, remembering how that seemed to be the way we all treated him…  
-5 years ago-

“Hey Violet!”, I heard Toby shout behind me. Groaning I turn around “what do you want Toby?”, I ask annoyed seeing his face with a cheerful excited smile “heya I got these tickets for that movie that came out and since you seemed interested in it I thought we could go watch it together since we haven’t really done anything together in awhile, so wanna go?” He asks smiling, rolling my eyes I tell “I already went to watch with my friends Toby, stop bothering me” he smiles falls and he looks down, “oh… hehe sorry I didn’t know that” he just stands there annoyingly rubbing the back of his head “I-I’ll just go ask one of the others then.. sorry to have bothered ya…” he says walking away. I never actually went to go watch the movie with my friends I just didn’t want to be around Toby. Remembering correctly I swore I saw those tickets crumbled up in the trash that night …

-end of flashback-

...feeling something wet hit my hand I look down realizing that I was crying, quickly wiping away my tears I sniff trying hard to remember any good memory of Toby, but I can’t…  
Everything I remember is of me just of me being a jerk to him, how he was teased by Ryan, and how he got yelled at a lot by mom for simple things. The realization hurting even more that we caused this, we hurt him so badly that he became that thing, that monster….  
The lesson from my teacher echoing in my head “pain and hate drives people to do the darkest things, but driving it into one's heart can distort their mind and change them forever. “, sitting there the tears starting up again  
“I’m so sorry Toby”....

Another one appeared, another little flame touching it I see a new story a new life then it all fades to black, and the little flame joins the rest turning black and white devoid of the colors it use to be. Every flame I feel something nice and new but it turns cold and the numbness returns chasing away the feeling. The darkness swallows all the images again and I’m left once again in the dark emptiness, nowhere to hide, nowhere out, just darkness.  
I remember things small things, but no matter how hard I try I can’t remember who I am or what I looked like, I want to cry, I want to scream, but I can’t. Just exist here with small moments of relief alone in the darkness...


End file.
